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Fort McMurray, Alta. is one of the last places on earth most British Columbians would think of as green.

But long before Toronto city council surprised even itself by voting this week to ban plastic shopping bags, the city at the heart of the oilsands had already taken the same step.

Toronto city councillor David Shiner, who made the surprise motion, told the CBC that he was motivated by the fact that many other communities in North America have already banned disposable plastic bags “and it works.”

I wasn’t surprised to see that the communities with a ban include perennial trendsetters such as San Francisco and Seattle, which is trying again after an earlier ban passed by council was thrown out in a popular vote.

But Fort McMurray? The trading centre for public enemy No. 1 on the international environmental movement’s hit list?

Fort McMurray, a town that lives and breathes the industry that supplies the raw material from which plastics are made?

Not only has Fort McMurray, officially the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo, brought in a bag ban, it’s had it in place long enough to conduct an extensive review of its impact, both on merchants and residents. Long enough to test the Toronto councillor’s assertion that “it works.”

The review is a fascinating look in detail at what happens when a ban is put in place and what the costs and benefits are. What emerged was enough to persuade the municipality that as imposed, the costs were too high to justify the benefits. A number of refinements enacted this spring by the regional municipality will water down its impact.

The review found that the ban wasn’t universally popular when it was imposed in 2010. Ten months after it was brought in, opinions had hardened, with a slight majority of residents in favour of the ban but with opposition hardened against it. More people were strongly opposed. Few people were still on the fence.

Merchants were also split, with small to medium sized business more likely being in favour of the ban and the big retailers opposed.

That finding reflected their financial results. Big retailers reported it was costing them money — some had six-figure losses — while some smaller retailers reported a net gain.

One of the reported costs was an increase in shoplifting and the cost of adopting new security measures to deal with the increased theft. One of the most common items being stolen was reusable bags that merchants had by their checkout stands for customers to purchase.

The original ban was more sweeping than the one adopted in Toronto. It included paper bags and was not restricted by size. Its broadly stated purpose was to “eliminate the distribution of single-use shopping bags … thereby decreasing the plastic and paper impact on the environment.”

In the revised, much less ambitious version, that section is gone. The single exemption for prescription drugs has been replaced with a long list of permitted uses.

The revised version recognizes that people don’t want to deal with reusable bags for messy takeout food, for dirty, greasy or hazardous products or freshly laundered clothes.

Also exempt are bags for “undergarments or similar products of a personal or adult nature,” and, oddly, “paraphernalia related to the use of illegal drugs.”

There’s also a section that allows a business to ask for an exemption for up to 12 months if it can demonstrate undue hardship.

The changes recognize a whole bunch of real-life details that no one appears to have thought about when the ban was originally brought in.

As for impact, the study estimated that the ban resulted in 7.8 million bags not being distributed by retailers over 12 months. At the same time, however, residents purchased an additional six million plastic bags.

Still, a net gain, if 1.8 million fewer bags made it to the landfill or ended up as litter.

And if nothing else, it gives the oily heart of Alberta environmental bragging rights over Vancouver on at least one front.

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